Local revenue structure under economic hardship: reliance on alternative revenue sources in California counties

This article investigates how a worsening economy affects local revenue structure, and whether the impact is moderated by the fiscal relationship within higher levels of government. The revenue potential of nontax sources – fees/charges and fines/forfeitures – is considerable for local governments under economic hardship. With the panel data from California counties over a period of 11 years (2000–2010), this article shows that reliance on nontax revenue largely depends on the economic and fiscal factors that vary across counties, and the effect of economy is contingent on local dependence on intergovernmental transfers. Counties are likely to raise nontax revenue when the economy worsens and their transfer-dependence increases, while the marginal effect of the economic indicators changes from negative to positive as transfer dependence increases. This article illuminates the characteristics of the two types of nontax sources in terms of the mechanisms of incentivising human behaviour and concludes with policy implications for researchers and practitioners.     

Court-ordered redistricting and the law of 1/<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>

This paper examines the effect of redistricting on the law of 1/n, which posits that government spending increases with the number of legislative districts. Our analysis suggests that court-ordered redistricting in the 1960s significantly influenced the 1/n effect, because dividing districts (increasing their number) and merging districts (reducing their number) both reduce public spending. After redistricting, the positive relationship between seats and spending holds for lower chambers in bicameral legislatures. The US experience informs those interested in the design of bicameral institutions about the fiscal implications of legislative apportionment.     

Other forms of conviviality: The best and least of which is our daily care and the host of which is our collaborative work

In this collaboratively written essay, artists Park McArthur and Constantina Zavitsanos take a queer materialist feminist approach to the entanglement of dependency and reproductive labor, disability, intimacy, and the impossibility of exchanging incommensurables. The text merges the authors' experiences receiving and providing one another care with their artistic practices, and includes instructive performance scores for past, rather than future, events.     

Social and semantic network analysis of Facebook pages: the case of Brexit and Bremain leaders

Asia Europe Journal - This paper aims to probe how leaders of Brexit (Nigel Farage) and Bremain (David Cameron) camps communicated with the UK public via Facebook fan pages. This study employed two...